


O Christmas Tree

by BonitaBreezy



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Clint is a giant child, M/M, Tumblr Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonitaBreezy/pseuds/BonitaBreezy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint's determined to make some Christmas traditions in his new home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	O Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> A tumblr fic I wrote in like twenty minutes, sorry if there are any typos.

From [this](http://bonitabreezy.tumblr.com/post/68193674050/its-phil-and-clints-first-christmas-together-as#notes) post

 

It’s Phil and Clint’s first Christmas together as a couple sharing the same home, and Clint is as giddy as a kid and hardly even trying to hide it.  He decides he wants to go all out decorating, and Phil doesn’t have the heart to point out that they spend most of their time on missions or at HQ and will hardly get to enjoy it.  Clint just seems so enthused by the idea that Phil gets caught up in it too, and before he knows it, they’ve gone out and bought a real Christmas tree (Phil hasn’t had one since high school) and a few hundred dollars worth of decorations, lights, and ornaments.  If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it right, after all.

When they get home and get the tree set up (in a newly bought cast-iron tree stand that weighs at least fifty pounds), Phil decides to introduce Clint to some of his family traditions and flips on some Christmas music and goes to warm up some apple cider, instructing Clint to get started on stringing the lights as he does.  It’s the perfect way to establish their own traditions, and at the same time it gets Phil out of stringing the lights which is, in his opinion, the worst part of the whole process. 

By the time he gets back with a mug of warm cider in each hand, Clint has unravelled most of one package of lights and is staring at the tree like he’s trying to think of the best plan of attack.  And Phil suddenly gets it.  He suddenly understands that this is the first time that Clint has had a real home to decorate for Christmas since he was six years old.  It certainly explains his enthusiasm at the whole process that Phil has come to dread more and more the older he gets.

Clint looks up at Phil, expression a bit sheepish but also kind of defiant, and Phil makes the decision not the bring up that he now knows why decorating is such a big deal for Clint.  Instead, he sets the mugs down and makes a faux-annoyed face at his boyfriend.

"I see you, waiting around to save the worst part for me," he said, and Clint just shrugs like that had been his plan all along. "Did you at least plug them in to make sure they light up?"

At Phil’s prompt, Clint immediately goes to the nearest outlet and plugs the string of lights in.  They light up brightly, and Clint’s delighted smile is almost enough to have Phil dragging him off to the bedroom to leave the decorating for later.  But this is important to Clint, so he’s determined to do it right.

"Okay, give them here," Phil sighs "I’ll do the bottom half and then you can do the top.  Splitting it up will make it less awful right?"

"Yeah," Clint agrees.

Phil starts wrapping the lights around the branches close to the trunk, trying his best to get as much light as he can in each spot.  He can feel Clint watching him closely as he does so, but there wasn’t really an art to putting lights on a tree.  Mostly it was just annoying because it required a lot of moving branches around and untangling the wire from around itself. 

He did a little less than half before offering off the string of lights to Clint and sitting back with his cider to watch.  Clint strings the lights carefully, copying the way Phil had done the bottom half exactly.  By the time they get to the top, he is on the last string of lights, and he tucks the tail away into the tree before turning to Phil for approval.

"Beautiful," Phil says, and he can see Clint’s cheeks flush pink in the twinkling light.

"So ornaments?" Clint asks, offering the box towards Phil.

"I think we should do the garland first," Phil says, pointing at the chain of little plastic silver balls that Clint had gleefully picked out. "It might be easier if we’re not wrapping it around all the ornaments."

"Right," Clint says, "That makes sense."  Phil lets Clint handle the garland, which ends up draped around the tree in a winding spiral that looks just a little bit drunk.  Still, it gives it a homey feel, and Phil really enjoys watching Clint put it on, as he has to stretch up onto his toes to get the high parts and then bend down low to drape the lower branches.

"I see you watching my ass back there, Mister," Clint admonishes when he finishes wrapping the garland.

"It’s a nice view," Phil concedes, smiling into his cider.

"Well come on, help me get the ornaments on."

Phil obediently gets up and goes to the top box of ornaments. They’d chosen red and silver, only because the store didn’t stock enough purple ornaments to cover the truly massive tree they’d bought.  Clint had been put out for a only a few minutes before Phil had agreed to the large, “fun-shaped” ornaments (Clint’s words) instead of the standard glass balls.

As it turns out, they probably didn’t need as many ornaments as they bought, but Clint is determined to get all of them on the branches.  It results in the tree looking slightly over-decorated, but Phil finds that it doesn’t look bad at all.  Bursting with ornaments and the slightly sloppy garland chain, it looks like home and holiday and happiness, and he loves it.

"That’s a fine looking tree," Phil says, staring at it and trying to ignore the floaty, sappy feeling in his chest.

"Yeah," Clint agrees, grinning. "Now for the topper.  You want to do it?"

Clint is offering to be polite. Phil can tell that he really,  _really_  wants to put up the topper they’d bought.

"Nah," Phil says, trying for nonchalance, "you do it."  Clint shoots him a grin and drags a chair over from the kitchen table.  He climbs up on top of it and gestures for Phil to hand over the topper that had, admittedly, been the one thing he’d insisted on choosing.  He’d seen it and been completely unable to resist.

Clint plants the Captain America topper with much relish, fiddling with it for a minute before he is satisfied that it was completely straight and sitting properly.  Phil doesn’t think he’s ever seen Clint so satisfied as when he’s clambered down from the chair and backed up to take the whole thing in.

"It’s awesome," he says, and Phil has to nod in agreement.  Clint moves closer to the tree, tweaking some of the ornaments a little bit, like it would make them look less crowded or something.  Phil can’t resist digging into his pocket for his phone to take a picture.

"Smile for me," he instructs, and Clint obediently looks at him, shoving his hands in the pocktes of his cargo pants and giving him a half smile, trying to look too cool for Christmas but not quite pulling it off.  Phil snaps the picture and immediately sets it as the background of his phone.

"Thanks for letting me do this," Clint says, in that endearingly awkward way he has when he is trying to talk about feelings. "It was good."

"Well," Phil says. "We’re a family, right? We should have our own traditions."

"Right," Clint answers, looking pleased.  He takes a few steps until he is right up in Phil’s space, and his hands drift down to the zipper of Phil’s jeans. "Now how about a post-decoration blow job?"

As Clint sinks down to his knees, all Phil can say is , “This is an excellent tradition.”


End file.
